The Red House
by Youslackin
Summary: A Group of friends find themselves trapped in a house that they believe is haunted. Bare with me- it's my first
1. Chapter 1 Getting Inside

Chapter One

Getting inside

The children arrived in front of the abandoned building. Dozens of people used to live in its apartments, and when it was active the building looked rather antique; aged but pleasant. Now wooden plants were nailed to the windows black garbage bags were taped over some of the others, bricks were missing from some of the corners of the building and it was clear that if the building didn't fall over by itself; it would soon be torn down.

The building had been in the neighborhood for decades but no one paid attention, no one ever really stopped by, maybe it was because of the stories… or perhaps the fact that the neighborhood had a horrible history of violence. Shootouts between gang members, deadly robberies in the near by stores, the bodies of dead homeless men and woman alike were often found in the bushes of the parks nearby. All of these things plagued the areas reputation and resulted in it being mostly secluded.

But this was most likely to change soon, new buildings were being built, a richer population was starting move in and soon this building, as well as many others in the community was going to be replaced with new apartment complexes. Perhaps that would be for the better.

"Ralf showed me this place" A girl named Erica explained. She was one of the youngest in her group. She had olive colored skin and jet black hair that curled at the tips it was long and messy and went down the length of her back. She put a hand on her hip. Despite her girlish face, she was a tom boy dressed in bummed down jeans and a loose shirt. Her once white sneakers had holes on the bottom but she never seemed to mind neither did her friends who she turned to waiting for their approval.

"I don't care, I never liked Ralf" Her friend Lisandra explained.

Lisi; as she was also known as had pallid skin and a thin face. Her body however was full and developed for her age. She wasn't very athletic and had been dressed appropriately for school, accounting for her reluctance to try to climb the barbed wired fence or try to do anything that would require physical endurance whatsoever. The girls were cutting school and Lisandra didn't want her mother to have any suspicion of her missing class. Her worst fear was getting caught and disappointing her mother, but the adventure that her friends portrayed was inspiring to her, for she had a bit of a rebel inside too that she kept under locks. The girl played with her dark brown hair idly in thought. "I'm not going into that place-- it seems dangerous…"

"Not to mention disgusting!" Tatiana added.  
This girls skin was a darker shade of caramel her hair was short reaching up to her neck in length. She looked at the others with her big brown eyes and seemed already set in her ways. "The only thing we'll probably find there is a homeless guy jerking off or something" She shot a glance at her friend Erica, knowing she would respond to it.

"Eww" The girl flinched at the thought but ignored her friend's statement. She walking over to an opening in the fence but it was tight and it was clear that even she would have trouble fitting through it. Looking for another alternative she pointed at a concrete wall that was as tall as the barbed wired fence itself. The wall intersected with the fence and she thought if they could only get on top of the concrete wall they could hop over to the other side easily, and unhurt.  
"Let's get up there and then climb over,"

"Behind that wall is where they found a body a few weeks ago, some prostitute I think, she was all beaten and bloody!" Lisi informed. "My mom told me to be careful around places like this."

"That's why people shouldn't listen to the news! All they do is try to scare people away from places. Imagine we get inside and we find, like treasure or something!"  
The girls stopped and gave Erica a look, she giggled stupidly and shrugged. "But seriously come on, let's get in there! Snoop around, they're gonn'a tear this place down soon. Wouldn't you want to tell your childrens' that you wasn't a boring kid; sure we all want to be prestigious and all but-"

"Alright let's do it" Tatiana said with a sudden change of heart. The girl fixed her hair into a pony tail and began inspecting the area to see if they could really get over there safely.

"Why?" Lisi asked her face was confused she knew that with Tatiana on Erica's side she might be more easily persuaded into doing something stupid. She had the feeling that this was a losing battle but she still had hope.

"Why not,"

Lisandra sucked her teeth but shrugged reluctantly. They began to look for a stool or anything that they could use to give them stability and height when climbing the wall. Minutes later they stumble across something around the junkyard near by; it wasn't hard to find. The girls find a plastic create and lean it against the wall so that it may give them the best height possible. Erica's the first to lift herself up she struggles at first but balances on the wall sitting with one leg hanging off either side and the other two follow suit. Within minutes they manage to avoid the barbed wire fence and clumsily land on the ground on the other side.

"See? That wasn't too bad" The girl exclaims, Lisi gives her a hateful glare.

"This is stupid" She mumbles, trying to brush the dirt off her hands. "How are we going to get back over?"  
Erica rolls her eyes, dark hair bouncing as she skipped towards the main entrance. "So what's the _real _reason we're doing this?" Lisi asked, ignoring the fact that her other question went unanswered.

Tatiana tries to suppress a smirk but fails and smiles sheepishly. The girls know each other very well and Lisandra is smart enough to know that there was some other motive for this adventure.  
"Alright" Tatiana sighed "We'll tell you"

The two tell Lisandra the local stories about the buildings past. They tell her about why the building was shut down. They explained the stories of torture. One story stated that the owner would cook people in the boiler room on the lowest level he would steal them away from their apartments and eat them sometimes he would even do so while they were still alive. Another story stated that tenants would just simply disappear; when police began to suspect it was an inside job the owner of the building committed suicide not wanting to be blamed for any of the murders. But whatever the story was it always ended tragically, the building was shut down and the owner was found hanging off the roof by his neck.

"So which story is true?" Lisandra asked with wide eyes.

"Well I don't know fully. Ralf told me that the owner of the building really did commit suicide, after that no one really wanted to live here. People moved out- and never looked back"

Tatiana nodded and added on "At night people passing by can hear screams sometimes- even though this place is completely abandoned. They say if you wait around and look at the roof at around two in the morning you can see his silhouette. The shadow of the old owner- walking off the edge of the roof…"

"You guys do know that ghosts don't come out in the day time right?" Lisandra laughs.

"Listen, people would disappear from this place all the time; any time. Let's try to talk to them or something I've seen something like this on show Ghost Hunters. Speak to the spirits and they'll make themselves known. If something happens… anything! It'll be worth it."

"And if not?"

"If not, we had fun at least right?" The girl gives a bright smile.

The main entrance of the building was locked and sealed with heavy chains. The windows on the first floor were too high to climb into comfortably, and even if they weren't they were all closed by wooden planks from the inside. They searched around the whole building for any openings in the windows. Yet they had no luck. The girls were beginning to become frustrated with each other. Tatiana was checking her text messages. Lisandra seemed reluctant to even pretend she was interested and Erica was getting plain old annoyed. The tomboy kicked a small pebble and sat on the grass. They stay there a while, not talking much at all they were about to come to the silent conclusion of leaving all together until they hear a thud come from inside the buildings walls.

Their eyes snapped shut and then they looked at each other. A mixture of surprise and fear shot through them, and Lisandra grabbed each of the girl's hands and pulled them together. She spoke in a low voice as she tried to read their expressions.

"You hear that?"

"Absolutely"

"Should we go in?"

"We're already here, besides this is an old rusty place. That sound easily be mistaken for a noisy pipe…anything. I assure you it's going to be fine- and even better when we get out of this place you'll probably slap me for wasting your time" Erica explains.

"Yeah I will… How'd you know" Tatiana threatens, receiving a sly smile from her best friend. The girls continue to fool around making jokes as they looked for a way to get in. They knew that Ralf and the crew had been inside before and they looked for their means of entry.

Walking over to the back of the building they finally found an opportunity. If they could climb the fire escape and make it to the second floor then they would be able to go in through an open window. They climbed the ladder, trying not to make much noise and attract much attention, and soon they made it to their destination undisturbed. Erica opened the window even more for better access and was the first to climb inside. The floor creaked as the girl stumbled in, she turned to help her friends inside and they all made it inside the 'haunted' building looking around in silence.


	2. Chapter 2 The real truth

Chapter two

The real truth

The walls were covered in a dirty old wall paper that once seemed like it might have been decent about 40 years ago. The floral design was now faded yellow with age, and aside from that it was torn off in some places. Cobwebs dominated the corners of the room and aside from the random articles of clothing and mouse droppings the room was empty. The gray curtain was barely there. Half of it looked like it was ripped off but the other half that was still intact was blowing lightly with the breeze and the sound of the wind coming in through the window made them shutter. They stood quietly as they looked around the room for a few minutes. The rays of light coming in through the window revealed just how dusty the place was.

"I knew this was going to be a stupid idea" Lisandra muttered finally breaking the silence. "There's nothing here- and I mean nothing!"

"Alright hold your horses. Maybe if we stay long enough we could see a spirit"

"There's no spirits, but I might've found something better…"

Tatiana points to the corner in the far left and began to walk up to it. Through the sunlight's rays one could see something shine a bit. They all saw it, but Tatiana was the first to reach it. She picked up the shiny object ignoring the mouse droppings and other junk it was surrounded by. It was a wedding band, and an expensive looking one. White gold curled around a huge diamond ring, with two smaller diamonds on each side. The group of friends inspected it discussing whether it might be real or not.

"Hell yeah it's real!" Tatiana grabs the ring from her friend's hand. "Bids" She said as she stuffed it in her pocket.

"No way! It was my idea to come in here" Erica argued. "It should be mine."

"Look, I'll hold it for now so that it won't get lost…" Lisandra waited for any resistance but everyone knew she was the most responsible out of the three. "We'll take it to a jeweler later and see how much we can get for it, whatever the price we'll split it three ways. Deal?"

Lisandra held her hand out for the ring. After a few moments of thinking Tatiana scuffed and pulled the prize out of her pocket placing it into her friend's hand carefully. She nodded at them silently agreeing and they continued to go about the building inspecting each room. Once they finish looking through the apartment they leave out into the hall way they memorize the apartment number. 201. They walk slowly trying to make as little noise as possible, making their way to the stair case deciding to go up rather than down. The stairs creek as they walk but they're used to it at this point. In the hall way everything is darker. There is no light coming from the windows and they walk blindly touching the walls as they go. They make it to the fourth floor when Tatiana's phone rings.

"Hello?" She speaks into the phone  
"I wanted to know if you wanted to join us,"  
"Yeah, we're inside of that haunted building you were telling me about…"  
"Got in fine. Second floor right?" She laughed lightly holding the receiver closer to her face. The other girls waited impatiently for her to finish. They weren't going to go any further without her.  
"Well come we're here already text me when you're inside"

Then she hung up.

"Who was that?" Lisandra asked

"Ricky, he's with the rest of the Suicide Crew they're coming they're not too far away."

"Suicide Crew?"

"Yeah, the guys. Ralf, Ricky, Adam, Luis and Matt you know; the guys that are always playing suicide at the handball court around the school. The others are taking midterms." Erica explained. Lisandra just shrugged in response. She never liked any member of the 'Suicide Crew' in her opinion they were all mean and immature and they all took pleasure in constantly making fun of each other and making others feel horrible about themselves.

"What you should call them is the Retarded Drop-outs, or the Dumb Fucks Crew and by the way why the hell would you invite _them_?" The brunette made a face, but Tatiana steps ahead holding on to the railing of the stairs and doesn't look back as she responds.

"Because they're guys. We'll be less scared around them. Plus, that guy Ricky is extremely hot…"

Erica and Lisandra both sigh, it was completely like Tatiana to be chasing after a guy.

At the top of the forth floor all of their previous thoughts and conversations were lost. A shadow could be seen at the end of the hallway where barely any light reached. It moved at first, then it went rigid and no further movement could be seen. The girls were beginning to think they were imagining things. They whispered to each other to confirm if what they were seeing was real. All of them had seen it there was no doubt about that, they thought it might be a homeless person but as they watched him they realized he was just staring at them. Lisandra took a step back, and Erica stepped forward with caution squinting at the darkness as if it made her vision suddenly enhanced. She bit her lip realizing that she couldn't see anything anymore. It was like the guy had blended into the darkness or maybe disappeared all together. Tatiana reached into her backpack pulling out two small wooden sticks.

"Drum sticks?" Lisandra mouthed out, you could almost hear her whisper the syllables. She clutched the sleeve of Erica's sweater peaking back down the hallway from behind her.

Tatiana nodded, still looking into the darkness. The girl seemed ready to swing at anything that was willing to come too close. If that was a ghost then it had succeeded in scaring the hell out of them.  
They waited when suddenly they heard a screech, a loud shrill filled the hall and could probably be heard from outside even. Something leaped from the darkness with frightening speed and knocked the girls to the floor. They all stumbled and fell as their screams filled the air. The thing was already attacking pulling Lisandra's hair and trying to…bite her?

She yelled out in pain trying to pry the creature's hands from her hair. The other girls got to their feet and tried to pull the monster off. The creature quickly turned its attention to Tatiana in the manner of milliseconds it was off of Lisandra and had its hands wrapped around Tatiana's neck, choking her. The girl cough gasping for air although her throat was being forced closed her eyes began to tear even though it had only been choking her for a few seconds. She could see the girls trying to pull it off of her but it wouldn't release its deadly grip. Instinctively Tatiana remembered the drum stick she still had in her hand. The other one had fallen during the attack but she had still been clutching one of them, and this she used to bludgeon the creatures eye. She shoved the drum stick into its face until it released her; the thing screamed in agony, went limp and died.

Erica helped Tatiana up. The girl was shaking, in shock with fresh tears rolling down her eyes. Hands on her neck she still felt like she was being choked, she looked down at the creature taking a few steps back Lisandra tried her best to comfort her rubbing her back as she too looked at the thing but it was clear that she was also beginning to tear up too, horrified.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" Tatiana's shrilled when she caught her breath. Her sentence was cut off by Erica's hand.

"Shut up!" Her voice was low but powerful and the other two girls obeyed. She took her hand off Tatiana's mouth and spoke to them in whispers. "Look I don't know what it was but whatever it is, its dead now. If there's any more of them we're going to have to be really quiet so they won't notice us"

"What. Was. That." Tatiana repeated through clenched teeth. She had grabbed Erica by the shirt angrily. Couldn't the girl tell she had almost been choked to death? Not to mention the fact that she just technically killed a man. She could imagine the place surrounded by police the shame on her mothers face when she found out her daughter just… killed someone.

She could already feel the cold handcuffs on her wrists. Tatiana now regretted stepping foot into the place. They came looking for ghosts and ended up getting attacked and killing a man! She didn't know how she was going to live with herself now. She hoped the girls didn't want to call the police, she swallowed nervously waiting for someone to suggest something, anything that didn't include her going to jail for murder.

"This… isn't a person… at least it doesn't look like it" Lisandra pulled out her cell phone and held the light to the creatures face. She knew, that being the most logical of the three she must've sounded stupid but her mind was racing and she had to admit it as bad as it seemed. "It look's dead."

"No shit." Erica snapped, pulling herself away from Tatiana's angry grip. She knew what everyone was thinking and she too was beginning to regret coming here, but there was no way they were going to call the police. They would all get into trouble. Trespassing; murder…or was it manslaughter? The girl flinched at the thought. She didn't want any of them to get into trouble for something that was her idea. The only option that made sense now was to get out as soon as possible and never speak about the house again.

"No. I mean… Look at it. It looks like it was dead before we got here." Lisandra's words brought Erica out of her train of thought. She walked over to the body, kicking it lightly in the ribs. It didn't move, so she put her face closer to the body, observing its face and ignoring the long drum stick still sticking out of its eye.

It had thin chalky white skin. The veins under were visible and the creature had dark bags under its eyes and blood that was foaming out of its mouth. Of course its eye was gushing blood and ooze but it was clear that it had been bleeding profusely before their encounter. Its clothes were dirty and stained with blood and it had scratch marks all over. Open wounds- clearly the working of claws had scarred its face, and its eyes (or more its remaining eye) were white like those of a blind man. The creature laid there, a disgusting reminder of the trouble they had gotten themselves into. Tatiana stepped on the drum stick, shoving it deeper into the creatures head. Lisandra flinched at the subtle sound, and Erica on the other hand was already walking back downstairs.

"Let's get the fuck out of here."

"Erica what are we going to do?"

"Get out asses the fuck out of here like I said!"

Tatiana found her other drum stick and held it to her chest as if it were a cross. As they made their way down the stairs they heard footsteps; footsteps that weren't their own. They froze, paralyzed with fear in the middle of the stairs knowing that soon if they stood there they might get into another show down and next time… They might not be so lucky.

"Dude that thing wasn't human" Tatiana mumbled as they walked carefully down the stairs. "I've seen zombie movies. That thing was NOT human!"

"Zombies? Be serious." Erica gulped, knowing that they all had silently come to the same conclusion she still felt the need to debate about it. As much as it made sense to assume that it was a zombie; it didn't. Zombies don't exist. She wanted to believe that it was a coked out freak, anything... anything but a zombie. In the movies _everyone_ turns into zombies. If what they were dealing with was anything like that they were in big trouble.

"You've seen it for yourself he tried to take a chunk out of Lisi. There's no other explanation. We're fucking with zombie's dude!"

Although she wanted to argue Erica was now speechless, and Lisandra on the other hand the one who always had something smart to say about everything had the words snatched away from her too. Then with no warning at all a roar could be heard coming from downstairs and banging as if someone was hitting a wall with something. The screams didn't stop, it triggered more. Noise now came from upstairs too and the sound of something running downstairs could be heard. The noise made the girls ears ring and even as Lisandra yelled for them to go they weren't sure they heard it as much as they saw her say it.

"Go. Go. Go!" Lisandra urged pushing Erica forward the girls went into a sudden sprint running down knowing now that they creatures were everywhere. Upstairs, and now downstairs somehow they began to wonder how come they didn't bump into them before? They went into the nearest apartment on the third floor and locked themselves inside leaning against the walls trying to catch their breath.

"Yeah" Erica admitted in an exhausted voice "I think those things are fucking zombies."

They stared at each other with wide eyes silently thinking about what just happened.


	3. Chapter 3 Planning the great Escape

Chapter three

Planning the great escape

The three stood inside the apartment until things got quiet. The screams stopped quickly but the thuds continued for about 15 minutes. After that everything fell silent again. The girls didn't make a peep. Even when they heard something walk right past the apartment they were hiding in, they managed to remain silent and still. Soon they got the courage to stand up and inspect the rooms; they looked for weapons or anything they could use as such. Erica found a baseball bat and claimed it as her own. Lisandra found a metal rod that was previously used to hold up the curtain. Tatiana kept her drum stick, but grabbed a glass bottle that she would keep close as well.

They planned their exit; they were going to be as quite as possible. If there were any other creatures that were close by they did not want to disturb them. They kept their usual formation Erica first followed by Lisi and Tatiana covering the rear. They opened the door slowly, closing their eyes in prayer as it squeaked. They made their way to the stair case wordlessly, holding their make shift weapons up protectively. It was hard for them to guide themselves in the dark with the fear that flooded through them it wasn't an easy task but the girls were surprised to find that they got to the bottom of the stair case with no problem. Finally at the second floor they heard a noise yet again, a thud came from down the hall. The girls quickly went into the nearest apartment once again, hearts pounding completely afraid of what was going to happen.

Erica bumped into someone as soon as she scurried into the room. She screamed at the top of her lungs triggering like responses from the other girls. Footsteps could now be heard running toward them. Erica pulled away from the figure in front of her not sure weather to attack or defend- or run. The creature down the hall was getting closer, it was incredibly fast and Erica was just about to jump back and run up the stairs when the figure before her grabbed her by her shoulders and pulled her in.

"Shut up!" A familiar voice said, and it pulled Tatiana in too. Lisandra jumped inside and closed the door behind her fast enough so that whatever was out there didn't get the satisfaction of catching them. It was angry though, and shrilled as it clawed at the door and hit it with heavy fists. Screeches could be heard, and thud after thud after thud.

Inside the girls could see that they were not alone. The boys were all before them, looking unnerved and confused. Ralf sighed, pulling his hand through his long blonde hair. He was the tallest out of all the boys and happened to be the leader, Adam was leaning against the bordered up window, and Ricky had his head down looking at the floor, while Luis and Matt were whispering amongst each other.

The girls felt relieved but at the same time frustrated. Ralf had almost scared Erica to death, and now she was beginning to think of all the things that could've avoided this. The guys said that they had been inside the house before. If this was really zombies they were talking about things like that don't happen over night. The place had been abandoned for a while now. How could anything live in this place without any food or water? She began to think maybe they were living off of people like them, wanders, homeless men and woman, drug users or maybe people who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Her thoughts were making her dizzy she fumed, not knowing what to say first then she inhaled and began to yell at the crew.

"What happened? I thought you said you came in here before, how is it that you didn't bump into any of these…monsters?"

"I did come in! We all did a few weeks ago" He motions towards the other boys "We didn't stay for long, we went out into the hallway heard a sound from downstairs and left! I didn't know. I- I don't know what happened. As soon as we got here we got stuck. We heard some footsteps following us and we were right. At first we thought it was you guys playing a joke on us but…" He didn't have fear in his eyes but it was something else. His face was straining in thought as he tried to formulate his words. "There's something out there and it won't let us get any further." Ralf walked deeper into what would've been the living room area of the apartment.

"Did you see it?" Tatiana asked.

"No, it sure saw us though" Ricky responded, he was a shorter boy with spiky hair that fell over his face fashionably. He fixed his flannel shirt and stood up.

The gang stood in silence for a while. All were lost in their own thoughts. When Lisandra spoke all of the guys looked surprised, as most of them didn't even know her. They seemed half concerned with what she had to say but that didn't bother her.  
"Did you… Call the police?" She asked in a small voice remembering what happened up stairs. No one else had remembered but her. She was beginning to wonder why they didn't call but she was hopeful if they didn't, it would help to save their asses.

"…No"

"Calling the police might be a smart option you know" Adam added from a distance. He was a tall thin tanned boy with frizzy hair that was wild yet fitting. He was wearing black jeans and a white v-neck tee he crossed his arms in front of his chest as he looked at the girls taking a moment of hesitation before pulling out his cell phone casually.

"Don't!" Tatiana choked it was now clear that she had been holding back tears the whole time. If it wasn't the thought of her killing someone then it was the thought of getting caught that terrified her. Adam responded by freezing, he didn't dial the last digit. He just looked up from his phone and waited for a reasonable explanation.

"…I killed one of them"

"So what, they're not human it doesn't matter" Luis budded in, making a step towards Adam. The boy looked as if he was going to grab the phone and dial the number himself.

"Do you really want to open up that can of worms? Come on! We're already on the second floor. The exit is in room 201. We're 7 or 8 doors away. Why bring the adults into this? Plus do you know how much trouble I'd be in… I mean WE'D ALL be in?"

"Don't worry we're not going to call 'em" Ralf insisted in a dull tone. His voice was calm and he sounded sure of himself. He gave a look to the other boys that read 'drop the conversation' and they shrugged knowing that Ralf would probably try to break their phones or do something stupidly drastic if they tried to make the call.

"You guys have weapons?" He noticed finally. The girls walked deeper into the room and put them aside.

"We tried" Erica admitted, "We were up there for a half hour almost… We were attacked. We have to fight back or else who knows what those things are capable of."

"That's a good idea" Adam agreed he finally put his phone back in his pocket and began to look for a weapon of his own. He disappeared walking into the bathroom getting lost in the darkness.

"…Yeah! Fucking great idea… you know what? How about let's just go and finish every single one of them off WITH OUR BARE HANDS. No guns you know, we go old school. Grab a bat and a bottle and just kill everything that way it won't be an issue right?" Luis was sure not to hide the sarcasm in his voice he clenched his fists as he spoke, angry that Ralf could simply undermine everyone else's ideas to protect Tatiana. If they called the police now, they'd be in trouble but they would be safe.

"Luis shut your fucking mouth! You know if the shoe was on the other foot would you wouldn't want us to rat on you, would you?"

The boy shrugged and adjusted his glasses. Luis was the shortest in the group and he was not much liked most of the time, mainly due to his constant outbursts and irrational ideas although in this situation he might've been thinking the most rationally of all.

Ricky spoke now, "So it's settled, like they said the way out is only a few doors down. We pick up some weapons and get prepared to defend ourselves."

They all look around at each other, some nod some look away. They sit for a few still taking the whole situation in. They were in their own worlds until Matt brings them to action.

"…Yeah- yeah, what ever" Matt said under his breath "Let's just make this quick."


	4. Chapter 4 Back Tracked

Chapter four

Back tracked

It didn't take long till every member of the group was equipped with an item. They all mostly had curtain rods and other blunt objects. Ricky and Adam had pulled wooden planks from the window nails were sticking out of the end of the wood, making it an even more dangerous weapon. Matt, who swore by his boxing skills didn't want anything too extravagant but he did carry a corona bottle that had the bottom shattered making it a sharp short range type weapon. After making sure everyone was 'locked and loaded' Ralf opened the door fast, and they all began to walk out in a single file line. The girls were right behind him followed by the rest of the boys. Matt was at the end of the line, being the heaviest of them all the group decided that he would be ideal to be at the end, because he would be able to put up a good fight.

They went swiftly down the hall almost reaching room 201 and their salvation. They heard a throaty growl but kept walking anyway, Ralf wasn't about to falter for anything as far as he was concerned the longer they stayed there the worst off they would be. They got to the door and opened it, it seemed like they had been trapped inside the house since forever. But when they looked inside they were horrified, a creature was kneeling on the floor running her fingers over the floor as if looking for something the only thing was it wasn't looking down. Ralf stayed deathly still then turned to the rest of the gang and put a finger to his mouth to signal silence. He knew if they worked together they could kill the zombie girl or what ever it was easily.

That's when something stumbled out of the bathroom area of the apartment. There were two of them inside. Then another brought itself to stand in the darkness. Three zombies were now occupying the room with the only exit. Ralf cursed silently remembering that none of them had closed the door behind them when they came in. To make matters worst now they were spotted. The zombie growled and the other two looked into the direction of the door. One female and two males; Ralf was still sure their chances against them were good… Yet the situation was getting worst a burly scream could be heard from down the hall then the loud thumps of something heavy being dragged up the stairs.

"Oh no!"

"It's Matt! They got Matt"

What ever had him must've been extremely powerful. Calls for help filled the air as some of the boys already bolted upstairs to help their friend. The girls on the other hand were left at the end of the line, in shock they didn't know if they should try to make a quick get away or follow the guys upstairs. The three zombies in the room already decided to make their move however roaring and groaning they came running at the girls. They swung their weapons backing up instinctively they went to follow the boys. Erica gave a powerful swing at one of the zombies head with her baseball bat; the zombie stumbled back, fell and started to slowly bring himself back up to his feet. On the other hand the female zombie literally sprung out of the room and jumped on Lisandra.

Erica ran into the room determined to get to the still open window. She was upon the third zombie in seconds and hit its face in with the baseball bat multiple times. The skull split, but the first zombie she attacked was still alive. She went to the window, about to crawl through.

"Come on guys!"

She nearly forgot that Lisandra was being attacked too. The zombie's weren't about to let them go anywhere. One of them clung to Erica's leg and clamped its teeth into her flesh hard. She screamed out in pain and kicked the thing away and gave it the same baseball bat treatment as she did the other.

As this was happening Tatiana managed to break the glass bottle she had over the female's zombies head. The zombie screamed. It's mouth seemed to stretch long enough to fit half of Lisandra's head. She was about to turn and attack Tatiana but once she released her hold on Lisandra she was pushed over the railing and rolled down the stairs all the way to the bottom.

Lisandra yelled a curse over the rail looking down to see if the zombie still had any life in her even though it was too dark to see anything she knew nothing was moving. Tatiana looked into the room to see where Erica was. Erica had just finished taking care of two of the zombies by herself but what she didn't realize was that those were not the only zombies in the room. Tatiana's eyes were so wide Erica was sure they could've popped out of her head.

More zombies appeared from the darkness they seemed to be awakened by the noise of the fighting and now they were ready for a fight themselves. Dirty, bloody contorted zombies were now surrounding Erica staring at her hungrily with their dead white eyes.

"Oh my fucking god" Lisandra managed when she saw what Tatiana seeing.

"Erica get the hell out of there!"

The tomboy didn't even have time to respond before a zombie tried to grab at her. She tripped while trying to run but didn't fall and managed to make it out of the room with her bloodied bat and no more casualties. They closed the door and helped Erica stand up right, she was out of breath when she reached her friends and was now fully aware of how much pain she was in because of her leg. She groaned leaning most of her body weight on her friend Tatiana. She knew she was going to be a burden now but Tatiana was holding her up effortlessly and no one complained as they went up the stairs to meet the other boys.

They got to the top just in time to catch the sight of a muscular zombie getting his head smashed in with the wooden spiked plank. Ricky pummeled his weapon into the thing so many times that its face turned into a mush of bone and blood. The others looked at him surprised by his savagery but content as they helped Matt to his feet. Adam turned his attention to the girls.

"Damn are you alright?"

"No, we almost got out numbered down there. There was like 6 or 7 zombies in that room. We killed about 3 of them. Erica's hurt though." Tatiana said tilting her head towards her friend as she said her name.

Luis could be seen pacing in the background. He was shaking his head concerned, he felt like he was about to go crazy. Stuck in a house with creatures that wanted to kill him and even worst with people that didn't care much about him he had a feeling they would leave him there to die.

"I dunno man I really think we should look for another exit. You can't really expect_ every_ window but the one on the second floor to be sealed shut right? Do you think the bums that piss in these corners every weekend _only_ get in through the second floor? Huh? Huh?" Luis was rambling on speaking too fast to fully understand.

Matt was on his feet brushing himself off already. "I don't know how they're _that_ fast." He said allowing everyone to disregard Luis' statement. The boy was looking down it was clear that they wasn't going to be able to leave without a struggle. He never expected to be one of the first out of all the guys to almost get killed by one of those things. As he spoke his lisps could slightly be noticed. If they were in any other situation the crew probably would've made a joke about it.

"This is going to be a lot harder than we thought."

"Shh!" Ralf ordered. He went into one of the rooms and made a hand sign for the crew to follow. He knew they would be safer there than they would be in the hallway out in the open. He waited for everyone to be inside to go in himself. He watched Erica limping and wore a worried expression. He closed the door, and as soon as they were secured. Inside all eyes fell on her.

"So…you're hurt?"

She could feel eyes burning holes into her. "No I fell, man… Scraped myself on…something"

Everyone knew she was lying. They knew that she had been hurt by one of the zombies or what ever they were. And everyone, having clear knowledge that those injured by zombies usually end up turning into one; they wondered if the same ruled that applied in the movies also applied in real life. She flipped her curly hair behind her, forcing herself to stand up straight on her own. She leaned on her bloody baseball bat like a cane then she looked up.

After a gulp she said "So what do you want to do? Gonna kill me now?"

She heard a few gasps from her friends. No one liked the idea of killing someone they knew first hand; one of their best friends. They didn't like the idea of killing someone they saw all the time at school and had so many fun memories with. She looked around and saw a few people frowning. Adam wasn't even looking at her but his face was distraught, Luis looked horrified and Matt was scratching his eyebrow trying to avert his eyes.

"Are you bleeding?"

"Yes, I can feel it. But he didn't bite me right on… Teeth never touched my skin it; didn't break through my jeans, maybe I still have a chance. I don't think I'm going to-" She searched for the words. "-get sick or anything."

"Hmm" Ralf muttered. "This is bad…" He looked away facing the door. It seemed like they might have to go for round two again, or in the girl's case round three. "We need to get you to a hospital."

"Yeah" Erica said softly with a tinge of relief in her tone she was smiling weakly looking at her friends.

"If we can stick together we _can_ make it out. Let's just stop thinking like that it doesn't work for any of us" Lisandra said, being the voice of reason as usual.

"Hope so."Adam said getting up from his sitting position to look at Erica's pant leg.

Erica felt the blood soaking through her jeans. The thing must've bit her hard, because she could feel the cold wetness of her blood inching down her leg. With a hiss she rolled up her jeans to see the wound. It was puffy and red around the opening and the marks of the sharp teeth could be seen engraved in her skin. A bruise was forming around it.

No one said anything more about her injury. They just watched as she cleaned the wound as best she could and wrapped a torn piece of cloth around it. The cloth soaked up her blood quickly and she had to change the dressing before they headed out again. When she was done she stepped out into the open ignoring her pain.

Matt looked Erica in the eyes "Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

"Yeah, I'm worried that the bite might have gotten to you" Tatiana tried not to look at her leg. It was bad enough it was already the main attraction for the group right now and to make it worst everyone was secretly thinking that she might turn into a zombie herself.

Time passed quickly for them at that point. They decided to wait longer than before so that none of the zombies would be able to surprise them. If the creatures thought that they were gone maybe they would go back into hiding and that would make there escape even simpler. So they waited for over an hour and a half this time talking to each other and telling jokes and secrets to pass the time. Everyone watched Erica carefully, for now she was behaving normal given the situation. She was sitting in the corner with Lisandra and Tatiana and they seemed to have been talking about something private.

"So do you think she's gonna turn?" Ralf asks his male friends he speaks low enough so that the girls can't hear him. Adam gives him a passive look, he knows that any of them could've easily gotten hurt by one of the zombies and he's sure that out of all the scrabbles they've had with them so far that she couldn't be the only one with a flesh wound from them. He looked at Matt but didn't point this fact out to the others. As far as he knew the 'virus' or 'disease' or whatever it was couldn't possibly be spread through a little cut… although, the bite mark did seem very deep. Adam was withdrawn deeply into his thoughts while Ralf looked to another one of his friends for their opinion.

"I think we're being too superstitious; we have nothing to worry about. Think of it like an adventure. This is probably our only chance to go all out- we're physically free!"

"You call this free? We're trapped for fucks sake" Luis snapped. The guys rolled their eyes ignoring his statement as always.

"Well whatever it is I hope she doesn't turn. What would happen then? Would she attack us?" Matt shrugs and stares off at the walls.

"If she did I'd crush her fucking face in" Ralf said jokingly except everyone knew he was also very serious. No one laughed in fact most of the boys were turned off by the idea expect for Ricky. They all moved away from Ralf and began to make themselves busy doing useless things.

On the other side of the room, the girls spoke in whispers. Erica was frowning with red crying eyes, her back was facing the boys and she spoke only for them; her two friends.  
"I think that once we get out of here you two can keep my share"

"Your share?" Lisandra asked

"The ring; I think when we went back there the girl was looking for it. The zombie… do you remember?"

"I didn't see it. I just saw when they started coming at us." Tatiana said.

Erica exhaled. "Well it doesn't matter. All I know is I don't want you two to be mad at me over this. I know this is all my fault and I just wanna say I'm sorry" She kept her head down so that her hair fell over her face. "And you guys can just split whatever money you get from the ring. I'm out of the deal. I-"

"Don't say that dude," Lisandra started "We will make it out of here. If you want to make it up to me you can buy me a new outfit." She tugged on the blouse she was wearing. "Cause this is ruined."

The girls laughed quietly to themselves. Taking advantage of any last moments they were going to have with each other before they went back out there. They shared a three way embrace that no one else seemed to notice and Erica was left drying off whatever tears were left on her cheeks. They prepared themselves mentally for the time to come.

"We good?" Tatiana said putting a hand on her friends shoulder. Erica sniffled and turned back to the boys who didn't seem to be talking anymore.

"Hey guys!" She said loudly a new confidence could be heard in her voice. "Are you ready for another go?"


	5. Chapter 5 Round two:Planning the Escape

Chapter five

Round two: Planning the great escape

The other's seemed to be cautious around Erica at first except for the girls. Everyone else seemed to be afraid that she would turn at any moment but once they faced the dark openness of the hallway again they all forgot about her. Their only concern now was to get to the second floor. Before they went out they agreed that this time instead of trying to be quite like before they were all just going to make a run for it. Knowing that Erica wouldn't be able to keep up by herself Ricky volunteered to stay in the back with her. Nobody argued; no one wanted to anymore. The only thing they wanted to do was get out of the house already.

"Don't worry girl," Ricky whispered lifting his weapon up slightly. "We're two of a kind" He looked at her bloody baseball bat "We'll make it."

"You seem to be enjoying this too much" Erica said struggling not to make the fact that she was in pain apparent to anyone.

In no time they were on the second floor again. They knew that the zombies had a tendency for surrounding them, so they went fast. Again they weren't able to make it to room 201 in time. Wild stomping was coming from above and it was clear that now they were being chased by a horde. At least fifteen zombies all ran down the stairs at the same time. They were probably at the 4th, 5th and 6th floors the whole time waiting to ambush them. This meant that the zombies they were mostly dealing with were only from the 2nd and 3rd floors. That haven't even caught the most of the zombie havoc they were to reek. Ralf bolted down the stairs and even further. Once he realized they were going to be greatly out numbered he ran right past the second floor and down to the first.

"No! We can't go down there!" Matt screamed. It sounded as if the zombies had made it to the third floor already.

"Let's go!" Ralf was already half way down almost on the ground floor. There was no further dispute after that, everyone followed quickly and so did the zombie horde.

At the bottom they ran blindly into the wide lobby. None of them had ever been there before seeing anything down there was near impossible. None of them knew why Ralf chose to go all the way down instead of in another room on the second floor but no one wanted to get separated either so they followed him obediently.

The gang backed up against a wall prepared more so now than ever to fight for their lives. Everything that happened next was in complete darkness. Ralf yelled into the air that everyone should try to break the front door. It was now that some of them noticed it was partially made of glass. They began bashing their weapons against the door. They knew that on the outside heavy chains held the door together but if they broke the glass completely they could probably escape by going under or over the chains. They were shaking with fear. The sounds of the zombies making their way even closer to them didn't help them go any faster either. They were torn between breaking the glass of the door and turning to defend themselves.

About five of the fastest zombies made it down before the others. Luis stepped up first with his metal pipe and swung blindly into the openness. Everyone heard the sound of a metal slam against the head of a zombie and knew one of two things. 1) Luis wasn't as useless as they thought he was. And 2) the zombies were right there ready to take advantage of their situation yet again.

Ralf also stepped up to fight against the zombies. He had forgotten where he dropped his weapon so now he realized he was going to have to fight with his hands. Something jumped on him immediately but he grabbed it by the neck and held it far away from his face. He began to tighten his grip on its neck but quickly noticed that there were more zombies swarming down the stars. Without thinking he threw it into another running zombie with all of his strength.

He had never fought so hard in his life. He felt handicapped, everyone else had something to hit them with but he lost his head for a moment and forgot that he should've been carrying something for protection. He knew it was going to be over for him soon when two zombies took him down at the same time. He screamed, and then one of the zombies went limp on top of him. He heard Erica grunt, she had bashed her bat into the zombies head causing blood to be spilt all over him. The bat had shattered, and Adam jumped in taking care of the other zombie that was upon Ralf. Now both Ralf and Erica were weaponless. He cursed as he got up and then grabbed her arm for support he could feel that her body was becoming weak and she could barely walk for herself now.

Ricky hammered a zombie in with his wooden plank. The creatures head got stuck to the nails sticking out of his weapon and he had trouble shaking it off in time to smack another one.

"A LITTLE FASTER PLEASE?"

Just as that was said one of the glasses were shattered. Glass scattered everywhere and the kids began to squeeze out not caring if they were cut by the shards that were still hanging around here and there.

"Ralf go, you need to help the girls over the gate" Ricky managed in between swings and gasps. Everyone was fighting. Even Matt managed to knock out a few zombies before he escaped through the door.

The two ladies had gone through first, followed by Luis, Matt, and then Adam. Ralf went and then Erica, leaving Ricky as the last to escape.

When they had gotten out it was already sunset. Erica looked out into the sky. Her vision was beginning to blur. She now realized that she could see better inside the pitch black darkness of the house than out here with the light, her body was flowing with adrenaline but at the same time she could feel her hands shaking, and stiffening up. She groaned to herself but everyone else heard too and Tatiana who was already over the fence looked at her with a anxious expression. Everyone wore wide eyed scared faces. They didn't know what to do.

"Erica, what's wrong? Hey!" Lisandra said, pulling her face to the fence.

The girl looked at them, confused as if she didn't know them. Bile went up into her throat but she refused the urge to throw up. Now when she looked at her friends her mind went wild she could feel her heart beat as if it was in her head. To her everything was spinning. She was loosing a grip on herself. Her head felt heavy and she swayed a little. She could see their faces pulsate in her mind. Her stomach rumbled. She twitched slightly and felt her eyes roll.

"Holy shit! She's changing."

Erica couldn't resist any longer. She bent over and threw up on the grass. She threw up a mixture of blood and stomach acid. It tricked down her chin and stained the collar of her shirt. She was crouched over holding her abdomen, feeling terrible. Everyone quickly realized that Ricky was still in the house fighting and screamed to warn him.

"Kill her, she changed!" Matt called.

Erica shook her head, no. She looked at them and she could tell there was something different about her. The look on their faces said it all.  
"…guys." She threw up a little more. It tasted of bile and had a sick stench to it. "I'm not gonna make it."

"No!" Tatiana cried from the other side of the gate. "Ricky get out of there, help Erica she needs an ambulance!" She was heart broken seeing her friend like that, yet at the same time she was afraid. Now she was really crying, she looked to Ralf the leader and he was staring shocked.

The sounds of sirens filled the air.

Ralf gasped loudly. "Someone called the fucking police?"

"It wasn't one of us maybe someone from outside heard the noise. It was bound to happen eventually." Lisandra offered. They never took that thought into consideration. They looked at their friend from the other side of the gate. She was still throwing up and groaning.

"What about Rick?" Adam asked.

"Ricky can fend for himself. We have to go!"

Most of the group didn't seem okay with this, but with the red and blue lights that could now be seen flashing though the streets they knew they hadn't had much time. The group scattered, going in separate directions looking back one last time to see Erica running back into the building.

They ran.

And they never looked back after that.


	6. Chapter 6 The Finale

Chapter six

The Finale

As soon as Tatiana got home the first thing she did was shower. She had been crying the whole train ride home and she hoped to god that she would just wake up from this nightmare. But of course that wasn't going to happen. She showered and when her mother asked her what was wrong she simply said "Me and Erica stopped talking." And her mother didn't bother her much after that.

The girl was a bundle of nerves she was sure that Erica was dead but she wondered if Ricky had survived. Once she was finished she grabbed her phone and called him. It rang and rang and then went to voice mail. 'Oh no' She thought. He got caught too. She called again her cheeks were never dry of the tears.

Ring…

Ring…

Ring…

"Hello?"

"RICKY!" Tatiana nearly screamed. She took a breath and spoke into the phone again using a normal tone. "Oh god I thought you were done for"

"Me too" She heard him sigh on the other end of the phone. "I feel so bad about what happened."

Tatiana gulped. "What… exactly did happen?"

"She saved me tat… She came back and saved me, she pushed me out and fought the fuckers herself… Ugh. It's all my fault."

"Please don't say that. It's no one's fault… she, was going to turn anyway…" She tried to hide the sadness in her voice but failed miserably. She could hear near silence on the other end of the line and was about to hang up thinking that maybe he just didn't want to talk anymore.

"Oh…" He breathed. "Still."

"What did the police do?"

"Drove by a few times, then they went in and saw everything. Maybe they'll do an investigation- not sure. I think they're going to try to cover it up though… who knows. I didn't stick around after I left. Once the police came it was a pig fest."

"Well I'm glad everyone- well… I'm glad you're alive."

"Thanks." And he hung up.

Lisandra wasn't feeling much better than anyone else. She left that place knowing that she lost someone special, on the way home she inspected the ring that they found together tearfully. She went home cleaned herself up nothing but sad depressing ideas were plaguing her thoughts. In the shower she was shaking and sobbing. She knew that after today she would probably never be the same again. Her mind was spinning in thoughts of regret and remorse for letting herself- or anybody for that matter be put into that situation. Leaving the shower she was so distraught she actually fell and slipped on her bathroom floor. Her mother knocked on the door after hearing the crash.

"Lisi are you okay in there?"

"Yes" She uttered as loudly as she could, she grabbed a towel and dried herself off she put on her pajamas and quickly turned on her computer without eating dinner.

"You don't want nothing to eat Lis?" Her mother asked from the kitchen. She appreciated her concern but she wasn't in the mood to eat at the moment, her tummy betrayed her though with its hungry growls she didn't care. Her head was throbbing and she had a migraine but she still wanted to go online to see if everything was alright with her friend. She waited for the computer to turn on. When she signed on her aim she saw her friends screen name, clicked it and typed…

Boriquakittykat: Tat..

Luvnhateme214: Hey gald to hear from u how u doing okay back there?

Boriquakittykat: I don't know

Boriquakittykat: is she... gone? For real?

Luvnhateme214: fraid so

Luvnhateme214: I'm so sad :(

Boriquakittykat: Me too dude you don't even know. I'm feeling sick right now too I have the worst head ache.

Lisandra stopped typing and covered her mouth. She started coughing violently. Her stomach was starting to hurt too. She figured she would have to go get some sleep soon. She went back to the computer intent on making this conversation short.

Luvnhateme214: Me too my eyes are puffy from crying. My mom thinks erica and I stopped talking... if she only knew.

Luvnhateme214: On a lighter note I think Ralf says your apart of us now; the suicide crew. I think erica would've liked that

Boriquakittykat: that's the least of my concerns

Luvnhateme214: ..yeah its just... idk

Boriquakittykat: I feel like shit

Boriquakittykat: I'm about to sign off

Luvnhateme214: oh yeah ralf said to check yourself for any cuts or gashes he's so stupid you saw how quickly erica changed if we were like infected it would've happened by now

Luvnhateme214: anyway yea I feel like shit too I donno how I'm going to live w myself afta this but ima look on the bright side...

Luvnhateme214: it was no bodys fault but im gonna miss her. Anyway goodnite I should be signin out too

Lisi stayed staring at the screen wildly. Her vision was beginning to fuzz. She signed off without saying anything else and looked at the long scrape she got on her arm when they were in the house. No one had noticed, and she didn't think much of it until now. Her body flinched involuntarily and she started coughing again, when she pulled her hand away from her mouth it was covered in the blood she coughed up. She stared at the walls mindlessly and wiped her hands off on her pajama pants.

Then she got up and went to get something to eat.


End file.
